Quick post from phone: Republicans overturned a rule that required coal companies to test water streams for environmental damage and adhere to certain levels when mining. Coal company lobbyists paid Republicans to say “the rule will cost American jobs.”

Ask yourself, how would hiring several environmental impact inspectors actual costs American jobs? If a company needs to adhere to stricter guidelines to keep our water safe, that would only increase the amount of jobs. More products would be needed to maintain those standards in addition to the staff responsible for testing.

There are a few reasons it could cost American jobs:

– It’s impossible for the coal industry to keep our water safe when mining near streams, therefore they can’t work at all. Unfortunately for them, this saves lives and as such takes precedence over a few jobs (not to GOP representatives that get money to put jobs over lives)

– It’s impossible for the coal industry to be profitable if a few thousand dollars of environmental testing are added to their task. The margins are too short as nat gas is very low in price.

In both scenarios clean energy can create jobs and save the environment. Unfortunately for clean energy it doesn’t pay off Congress to act like complete fucking assholes!

I also want to thank you in advance as I heard you plan to vote no on Jeff Sessions, Betsey DeVos, Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, and Steven Mnuchin.

I really want to see you slow up Trump and the GOP party. They’ve taught us a great lesson in obstruction. They weren’t punished at the ballot boxes for obstructing at every turn, and your obstruction will actually be rewarded by the activists that are working together to limit the damage that the Republican Winter will cause.

Keep up the good work!

– Brian

I sent the above brief letter to Senator Bob Casey. Don’t forget to thank your elected officials when they do the right thing.

This week a psychotherapist, John Gartner from Johns Hopkins University has diagnosed Donald Trump with malignant narcissism. I’ll add that to our existing diagnosis of sociopath.

…it’s obvious from Trump’s behavior that he meets the diagnostic criteria for the disorder, which include anti-social behavior, sadism, aggressiveness, paranoia and grandiosity. Trump’s personality disorder (which includes hypomania) is also displayed through a lack of impulse control and empathy, and “a feeling that people … don’t recognize their greatness.

Thank you for contacting me about the nomination of Scott Pruitt as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this matter.

As you know, on December 7, 2016, President Trump announced his intention to nominate Scott Pruitt to serve as the next EPA Administrator. Currently, Mr. Pruitt is the Oklahoma Attorney General and, among other things, he has been involved in litigation on various environmental matters.

Now that the Senate confirmation process for Mr. Pruitt has begun, I value knowing your views about this nomination. I believe that the Senate’s constitutional role in providing advice and consent for presidential appointments is important, and all nominees deserve careful and thorough consideration. As you may know, I supported many of President Obama’s nominees and will support well qualified nominees selected by President Trump as well.

Also, while I have supported sensible environmental protections, I am concerned about the excessive regulations coming out of the EPA in recent years that needlessly impede job creation and hurt the pocketbooks of hard-working Pennsylvanians. Under the Obama Administration, the EPA was especially aggressive in proposing new rules that raised energy prices, imposed onerous compliance costs, undermined economic growth, and put Pennsylvanians out of work. I am hopeful that the next EPA Administrator will take a new direction and pursue a more balanced approach that is mindful of both our economy as well as our environment.

Thank you again for your correspondence. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of assistance.

My quick response from cell phone on my lunch break:

Senator Toomey,

The clean energy industry has the ability to create lots of jobs and save humanity at the same time. It’s important that we have sensible regulations that limit carbon emissions. The end of a livable climate on Earth isn’t worth a small dollar savings.

Pruitt doesn’t accept climate change, will work to benefit oil industry, and will help cause the end of humanity.

He is the opposite of a qualified candidate. A vote for Pruitt will put you on the wrong side of history and is a disservice to the lives of the people you represent.

Once again we find ourselves standing at the precipice looking over the field of battle. Facing not a foreign foe, but the sinister evil of seditious tyranny enveloping the halls of government. This foe is no less destructive to democracy here and the world as a whole than any threat ever faced. We’ve lost many of the battles so far brandished by the shadow forces that lurk behind the scene, wielding powerful weapons of corruption and deceit. As we stand on the brink, all is not lost.

We have stood here before, again and again, but have rallied to the cause, our cause, against dark forces attempting to enslave the masses breaking the chains of servitude to restore the natural balance of our government, of the people, for the people, and by the people. We gather our great strength, standing on the backs of our ancestral giants who stood as we do today on the brink.

Washington, stood there, burning, to forge this noble government on the frigid shores that Christmas day, he didn’t rally the troops with the cry, “for the aristocrats” as he boarded the boats, flag waving, to face the enemy but cried “liberty for all”. When Francis Scott key wrote his famous poem as we stood on the brink in 1812 for the defense of Fort Mchenry he wrote “and the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave /// o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” he wasn’t writing about a land oppressed by the rich.

When Lincoln stood on the brink of disaster at Gettysburg, he immortalized the cause, on the field covered in blood with the creed from our Constitution, of a government, “of the people, for the people, by the people, should not perish from this earth!” he was not calling on the thousands who perished in defense of this nation so the elite few, would prosper or control the government.

When your fathers and mothers across this nation, when standing on the brink, answered the call, storming and dying on the beaches of Normandy, did so that our democracy would still bloom, giving all her citizens an equal chance, equal justice and equal voice in our government. They did not rally on those bloody sands crying, for the Koch’s, the Walton’s, or the Rothschild’s, but cried en masse, for our country, for our people, for our friends and neighbors, for our families, this, and only this, is what our forefathers sacrificed so much for!

When the towers fell and we stood again on the brink, our sons and daughters took up the flag fighting to save democracy, not for the mega rich to hoard more and more of Americas prosperity, earned by all who worked so hard, but for all Americans. Will we forsake them now, as we stand again on the brink, of losing our democracy of the people? Or, will we rally to the defense of our nation, and restore our sacred creed by removing the stain of sedition represented in the abomination of citizens united, that subverts, all that Americans stand for?

Now is the time to pick the side of history you want to be remembered for. Do you hear the cries of the oppressed?

I, as a proud American, stand with the people, all the people, and will come to answer the call,
voting your conscience as real Americans, for those that truly represent you, restoring common sense, decency, fairness and equal justice for all and not the selfish few.
????????????????
as we did in Lexington 1776
we’re standing strong together,
against right-wing tyranny again!
Vote 2018.
Stop all right-wing fascists.
Never stop fighting for justice.

Depending on the metric you use the United States of America is anywhere from the 5th-30th best country on Earth. One could argue with advancements in technology, science, way of life, and civil liberties we’re living in the best time of American history. That’s why it was so ridiculous that Trump’s campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again.” What’s more ironic is that from the day Trump started to run, and after he got the nomination, he slowly made America suck. Every day that Trump is in the White House, America sucks even more. We suck so much that most people are sick of sucking already.

IRONY: Whoever runs for President in the next election can use the motto “Make America Great Again” and for the first time, it’ll be a true statement.